Flamborough Head (20 July 2008)

I stayed local today.I really must get up earlier n a Sunday morning. A short run in the car took me out to Flamborough for an afternoon saunter around the headland. Th coast paths are popular with plenty of options to vary the route.

I took the path from the village to North Cliff along a path that runs for a distance along the edge of a large static caravan site. The path is pleasant enough, shielded for the most part from the caravans. Unfortunately, its other function is as a venue for the campers to empty their dogs. There are no constipated pouches in these parts...

It was a day that alternated between heavy, cold showers and hot sunshine: chilly and drenched one moment, hot and sweaty the next. Despite the unsettled weather there were plenty of people walking and bird watching on the cliffs.

It's been a year or two since I was last on this part of the headland. Erosion has eaten into the cliff causing some path diversions, particularly near to Thornwick Bay and on the approach to Danes Dyke further south.

Both North landing and and Flamborough Head were busy with car-borne visitors. Fortunately the bulk of tourists tend not to wander too far from the car parks or beach, concentrating the litter near to the roads.

In addition to the golf coarse, beach, cliffs, bar and cafes Flamborough Head boasts two lighthouses, one dating from the mid seventeenth century, the other from the early nineteenth. The new lighthouse can be visited at times and is well worth the climb up to the light.

South of the lighthouse the foot traffic thinned considerably, with only occasional hikers and sea birds for company. I had a couple of sightings of gannets from the colony up the coast at Bempton.

South Landing provides an early escape back to the village, partly along a lane. A better, but slightly more energetic, option is the path, a little bit further south, at Beacon Hill. I continued a another long half-mile further south to Danes Dyke, forsaking the cliff for the woods. The path passes an ancient earthwork, which extends across the headland and gives its name to the otherwise natural ravine of Danes Dyke.

The path from the Dyke to Flamborough was once attractive. At first it follows a field edge, then enters an old pasture before decamping onto a lane in the village. The path over the pasture is now channelled through a barbed wire enclosed passage. Electric fences further carve up the field into enclosures for pigs and horses. An ugly, partly constructed, agricultural building, with an associated access track, also adorns the field.

I do not understand why such desecration is sanctioned on agricultural land, without discussion or appeal, when any development in the adjoining village is, quite properly, subject to close scrutiny. If the culprit is subsidised in any way by my taxes, I want my money back.

Although the coast isn't my preferred walking venue, I enjoyed another good hike of about ten miles, with plenty of short, sharp ascents. It did not present any problems or difficulties.